Using this site

Currently this service and site are used for testing and validation of the in-development software prototype for the Names project. This service and site are not intended for use in live external applications or services except for experimentation as the availability, data and API are currently all subject to change.

Names identifiers assigned to a particular record are NOT currently permanent.

Searching via the API

The service itself provides a multitude of ways to search the data that we have via the API. These are described in the Quick API Guide.

Searching via the site

The site currently provides several methods to search the Names data

• Search from the 'home' page does a quick search for records that match the form of the query name.
• Advanced search from the 'search' page provides more search parameters, including searching over name components, fields of interest and assigned identifiers. Here you can specify what output fields you want displayed with the results and in what output format.
• The 'browse page' allows you to browse through the Names data by surname or field of interest.

Query parameter values

You can't perform a search with wildcard values (*) for parameters. You can provide multiple search values in a query by using conjunctive or disjunctive operators to separate the values. For example you could provide the names search value of 'Bad and An' which would return all entities that have a name component that begins with 'Bad' and a name component that begins with 'An' whereas 'Bad or An' would return all records with name components that started with 'Bad' or 'An'.

Fields of interest taxonomy

Fields of interest are not currently part of a controlled taxonomy, and are currently derived from a variety of fields in the Zetoc data that we are using including conference keywords and Dewey classification. This will change in the future, however it is currently included to explore the use of such functionality.

Reporting errors

Hover over the 'Report an issue' heading that accompanies each record displayed in HTML to enter the details of an issue with a record's details.
For more detailed error reports then you can contact us using the feedback information below.

API version

The most current and default version of the API is listed first. In order to make calls to a specific version of the API, append your query with the parameter 'ver' and version number as the value.
For example:
http://names.mimas.ac.uk/[search method>]?[search parameters]&ver=1

Quick API Guide - API Version 2

Methods

• Search
• Individual
• Institution
• Transaction

Output formats

• HTML - default output format and currently the most reliable.
• JSON
• MARC
• Names
• RDF

You can specify what format you want the record returned in by either specifying it in the URI of your request, or by specifying it in the HTTP request header Accept field.

To request the format as part of the URI you would use the following format:
http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1.[output format]

EG:

• http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1.html
• http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1.json
• http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1.rdf
• http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1.names
• http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1.marc

To request the format as part of the HTTP request header Accept field you would can use one of the following content-types:

Content-type	Equates to
text/html	html
application/json	JSON
application/rdf+xml	RDF
application/xml	Namesxml
text/xml	Namesxml
application/marcxml_xml	Marcxml
*/*	html

EG: (Using curl)

• curl -H "Accept: text/html" http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1
• curl -H "Accept: application/json" http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1
• curl -H "Accept: application/rdf" http://names.mimas.ac.uk/individual/1

Quick API Guide - API Version 1 (Deprecated)

No longer available.

Data sources

Currently the prototype uses data from the following data sources:

• RAE 2008 MERIT data
• RGU - Robert Gordon University (http://names.mimas.ac.uk/institution/120)
• University of Huddersfield (http://names.mimas.ac.uk/institution/84)

We are currently processing data from the following sources:

• Zetoc - British Library's Electronic Table of Contents
• UKPMC - Grant information
• HESA - Institutional identifiers
• Open Access - A local list on institutions with open access to Mimas services

Remote script test

A Javascript class has been created using the API described above that provides remote access to the names service to query surnames and display the results in a drop down 'suggest' box. An example of this class in action is located at http://names.mimas.ac.uk/demo-script.
To use the example script you can begin to type in a surname into the 'surname' text field. Usage of the form is the same as described in the 'Query parameter values' section above
To disambiguate by field of interest simple enter a topic into the field of interest box and then begin to type the surname in the surname box. Our list of fields of interest is limited at the moment.

Full API Documentation

The prototype service is still under development, however full documentation for a stable release of the API will be made available shortly.

Data Submission

If your institution is able to provide data to the Names project to help form more comprehensive records about individuals and their publications then you can use the Data Submission Specification to submit data to us.

An example of its usage can be found here

No additional personal information is needed by the Names Project. The information in the Names database will be made available for use by other services and institutions, with the aim of making it possible to reliably link researchers with their publications across different systems.

We will supply institutions with a list of Names identifiers for their researchers as part of this process.

EPrints Plugin

A Names Autocompleter Extension Package for EPrints 3.x. is now available. For more information see the documentation.

Resources

Most of the icons found on the prototype site were sourced from the Silk Icon set under CCL @ FamFamFam

Feedback

Further information on the project is available at http://names.mimas.ac.uk.

If you would like to submit feedback or want further specific information email:

• amanda.hill@nullmanchester.ac.uk - Project Manager
• daniel.needham@nullmanchester.ac.uk - Developer
• phil.cross@nullmanchester.ac.uk - Developer